Five Clinicians Climb Everest – and beyond – for Noah’s Ark

18 MAY 2020

‘The Great Ascenders’ reached Virtual Base Camp… and kept on going

A team of paediatric specialists, doctors and nurses from a London hospital have not only been supporting families through the coronavirus pandemic, they have also been climbing virtual mountains to raise much-needed funds to support Noah’s Ark.

Dr Shehla Mohammed has brought the challenge participants together

The group of five, inspired by Dr Shehla Mohammed, an NHS consultant and paediatric clinical geneticist, has now scaled Kilimanjaro, the Three Peaks Challenge, and Mont Blanc, with Machu Pichu and Everest Base Camp in their sights. However, they were worried about running out of steps… so decided to go all the way to the top of Everest as well. So far, the team has completed well over 340,000 steps each since the start on the 20th April, raising almost £4,000 for the London-based children’s hospice.

The team consists of Paula Sullivan, Cristina Dias, Sarah Ross, Alison Lashwood and Shehla Mohammed. For many years they have all been involved in caring for children with life-limiting conditions, such as those supported by Noah’s Ark. The team run specialist clinics for these children and the pivotal support delivered by Noah’s Ark motivated Dr Mohammed to round-up friends and colleagues and get them involved in this ‘Step the Globe’ challenge.

The team were particularly inspired by working with Andreea, whose son Adam was supported by Noah’s Ark. Adam passed away, aged five, in November 2017, having suffered from a rare life-limiting condition.

Andreaa's son Adam inspired the clinicians

Dr Shehla Mohammed, who brought the team together, said: “We’ve all seen first-hand the many families, like Andreea’s, who depend on Noah’s Ark. That is why we were so motivated to keep Noah’s Ark afloat throughout these challenging times. When we heard about the financial predicament that the charity was facing because of the coronavirus, we all knew that we’d climb (virtual!) mountains for the cause.”

Sophie Andrews OBE, Chief Executive of Noah’s Ark, said: “It’s unbelievable the lengths that these five are going – to Base Camp and beyond! I’m so proud of the Great Ascenders; they’re not only saving lives during the day, they’ve also taken on this monumental challenge too. It’s a testament to our brilliant Care team, that they’ve inspired such senior clinicians to fundraise so magnificently for Noah’s Ark”.

We are committed to providing high quality care to the children, young people and families we support. We welcome your feedback as it helps to improve our services. You may wish to tell us why you are happy with your care, share your concerns, or make a suggestion for improving the way we do things. You can do this by downloading the “Compliments, Comments & Complaints” form here.